Hello,
everyone.
I
just wanted to warn you ahead of time before I post this blog entry for
today. I understand that the holidays
are one of the most magical and beautiful times of the whole year, and I know
that everyone has the same thoughts during the holidays. They want to spend the holidays with special
people and enjoy themselves. I know I
certainly want a holiday like that, and I hope that everybody taking the time
to read this blog today has the best holiday season ever.
And
of course, this blog will be observing the holidays by hosting A
POP CULTURE ADDICT'S ADVENT CALENDAR until December 25.
And for the most part, it will be a fun-filled smorgasbord of holiday
favourites and holiday stories.
However,
on this - day #3 of the calendar - I have a topic that while related
to the holidays, is a rather serious topic.
I've been observing a rather disturbing trend the closer we get to the
holidays, and it is this observation that I have to comment on because I do
have a lot of strong opinions about it.
Certainly,
the holidays can be a happy time. But
it can also be a frustrating time. It's
WHO AM I WEDNESDAY today. And
this time, it's personal.
December 3, 2014
Sometimes, working retail can be a really
frustrating experience. It can also
have its share of rewards as well, and certainly over the nearly ten years that
I've been working in that field of work, I've had some highs and lows.
Of course, I definitely find the month of December
to be one of the most frustrating months to work in retail. I am sure that every single person who has
ever operated a cash register once in their lives would agree with that
statement.
There certainly are a lot of variables that go
into making the month of December extremely difficult to work retail. Limited stock for customers. Long lines at the front end. Trying to get the best deals possible by
price matching. And, of course, there's
the challenge of trying to balance the time spent between a half dozen
customers within a ten minute window.
That is a real art in itself - one that I still have trouble with.
Though I will say that in quite a lot of cases,
the customers do show their appreciation to you for helping them out. They greet you with a smile, say thank you,
and in the case of one recent customer encounter, they hugged me right in the
middle of the store when I helped them find the latest release by Beyonce in
the CD section! See, encounters like
that are what make the job worth it, and I wish that every single transaction I
perform at work went as smooth.
But, over the course of the last few days, I've
noticed a really alarming trend. And,
it's one that I do NOT condone at all.
I understand that dealing with difficult customers
is a part of any job. You'll always
have those customers who are impatient and want to be served right there, right
then. You'll always have the customer
who wants to open every single box in the store to make sure that the items
aren't defective. You may even have the
odd customer who tells you that you've destroyed their Christmas because you
ran out of Elsa and Anna dolls. Been
there, done that.
But one thing that I will not tolerate is when
customers are so rude that they bully, intimidate, or threaten sales
staff. It is something that I deem
completely UNACCEPTABLE under any circumstance, and I will be the first to say
that anyone who works in retail does not get paid nearly enough to take any
sort of abuse from any customer.
I once served a delightful (and believe me, I use
that term loosely) customer who was with her young daughter. They were looking for an item known as a
Rainbow Loom, and I was the unlucky employee who was on the floor at the time
to help them out. Keep in mind that
while I now know that a Rainbow Loom is a kit designed to make jelly bracelets
and other pieces of jewelry, but do you think that a man in their early
thirties who has no children would have a clue what that was? Nevertheless, I tried to find out if we had
the item in stock despite the lady obviously getting madder and madder.
(Interestingly enough, the little girl showed more
maturity than her own mother.)
Long story short, it turned out that we were sold
out of the kits, and when I told the mother this fact, she tore a strip off of
me and launched so many F-bombs in my direction that if they were real bombs,
my remains would have been vaporized on the spot.
Need I remind you that this incident happened
right on the sales floor, right in front of her own daughter? Yeah, great lesson you're teaching you
child, Mom. Let's show her that retail
workers are not worth respecting and that they don't have feelings. Let's teach her that it's okay to treat
people badly for no reason whatsoever.
Great plan, Mom.
By the end of it all, I felt bad for the little
girl for having such a nasty parent.
But I felt even more angry over the fact that it wasn't just this mother
that was guilty of such behaviour. In
fact, I have seen an increase of nastiness from customers towards myself and my
fellow co-workers, and I am not liking it.
It seems as though customers are almost encouraged to treat retail
workers like garbage in hopes of getting discounts, or freebies, or whatever
they want because they have had some of their friends do the same, or they see it in action. It is just so disgusting and shameful.
I think in some cases, people don't seem to
understand just how badly they come across.
I'll say it like this. If you
talk in a flippant and sarcastic manner towards a retail worker and try to make
them look stupid, you're approaching a line that shouldn't be crossed. If you call a retail worker a nasty name, you
just crossed that line. And if you
verbally or physically attack a retail worker to the point where that worker is
in tears, you have taken that line, crossed over it, and blew it up with a
grenade. Enough is enough. Don't be a jerk.
I ask you this question. Would you verbally attack your wife or husband because they
didn't know the answer to a question?
Would you make your own daughter cry because she wasn't fast enough in
answering your question? Would you
throw a fit and cuss out your grandmother because she couldn't find an item for
you?
Then why the hell would you go out and abuse
someone who is trying to help you and is doing their job to the best of their
own abilities? After all, us retail
workers are someone's son. Someone's
daughter. Someone's mother. Someone's grandmother. How dare you go out of your way to
intimidate them or ruin their day because you were in a bad mood prior to going
to the store? How dare you put yourself
on a pedestal when your actions don't warrant it? How dare you play mind games with retail workers because you want
to get something for nothing? And how
dare you make people cry because you just enjoy being a jerk?
If you're really going to be that nasty towards
service people, then do us all a favour and do your shopping online. Nastiness like that is contagious, and I
certainly don't want to be put in a bad mood because you are angry at the
world.
However, there is one good thing about this. Just as nastiness can be contagious, so can
kindness. And here's a little tip for
all of you. The more patient you are,
and the more understanding you are, the better service that you will get from
me. That is an absolute promise from
me.
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